Ragtime

The syncopated story of America

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By John Lyle Belden

In the United States’ current social and political climate, approaching a significant celebration of the Fourth of July, it is fitting that Summer Stock Stage presents “Ragtime.” The epic musical by Terrance McNally with songs by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, based on the E.L. Doctorow novel, was a massive hit and Tony winner both in 1998 and the current revival. With a combined cast, crew, and orchestra nearing around 100 – mostly high school and college students – this exceptional production is directed by SSS Artistic Director Emily Ristine Holloway.

Set around 120 years ago, this is an appropriate tribute to America for many reasons.

It is the story of what was then considered an exemplary family. They are introduced by the observant Little Boy (Adam Palumbo), whose Father (Justus Palumbo) became wealthy enough from fireworks and other paraphernalia of patriotism to travel the world, leaving behind Mother (Allie Niethammer), Mother’s Younger Brother (Collin Alber), and Grandfather (Milo Ellis). Mother and Brother become central characters in the narrative, with Niethammer especially showing strength of voice and her role’s character. With clumsy charm, Alber embodies the American restless spirit, always searching for something he’s not sure of, seeking to give his life meaning. While Mother and Brother have transformative dramatic arcs, Father is stuck in an era he too late realizes has gone, naïvely unaware that his beliefs and attitudes are part of the problem.

It is the story of celebrity. The novel and its adaptations mix real historical figures in with the fictional exemplars of various classes. Many names are still familiar, including J.P. Morgan (Graham Bodkin), Henry Ford (Sam Funk), Booker T. Washington (DeMarae Bradley), and Harry Houdini (Max Frank). We also meet the scandalous vaudeville star Evelyn Nesbit (Olivia Steele); the events surrounding the Girl on the Swing described in “Crime of the Centry” are factual. Steele plays her with confident flair while presenting the ego that would outlast her famous beauty. Another notable personality was anarchist agitator Emma Goldman (Lilah Hern), presented with stubborn bravery, persistently and constantly calling out injustice.

It is the story of unending racial struggle. Aside from Mr. Washington’s righteous pontificating, we are presented with the Harlem community that gathers around pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Michael Washington), master of Ragtime music. He had been a carefree traveling musician but realizes his heart belongs to Sarah (Cori Hughey), who he discovers had given birth to his child. However, she had felt abandoned and betrayed by him, leading to desperate actions that result in her taking shelter in Mother’s home. Coalhouse’s story is the central narrative of the musical – from romance, to confrontation with the bigot Willie Conklin (Simon Allen), to tragedy and dire consequences. Hughey and Michael Washington acquit themselves excellently as Sarah and Coalhouse, bringing on heartfelt tears and rapturous applause. Also notable is Asha Smitherman as the soloist in the haunting rendition of “Till We Reach That Day.”

It is a story of immigrants. We see a number of arrivals with little more than the rags on their backs, exemplified by hopeful Latvian refugee Tateh (Luke Aguilar) and his daughter (Gracie Reckamp). He lays bare the whole newcomer experience – the humor, the horrors, and the spark of inventiveness that finally brings him to his part in the American Dream. Even in moments of despair, he perseveres for his little girl, and we can’t help but want him to succeed. To help escape dire circumstances, we get clever minds-eye cameos by fellow immigrant Houdini.  

Family, celebrity, racial tension, immigration issues – this 1906 story echoes like a 2026 campaign, set to music that was new and uniquely American. We highly recommend seeing this if you can; however, performances this Friday through Sunday (June 26-28) at Schrott Center for the Arts are swiftly selling out.

SSS’s next show is a different musical, still set around the same place and time: Disney’s “Newsies,” an entertaining examination of the 1899 New York Newsboys Strike. Performances are July 15-19, also at the Schrott Center, next door to Clowes Hall on the Butler University Campus (610 W. 46th St., Indianapolis). 

Get information and tickets at summerstockstage.com.   

Powerful ‘Ragtime’ at Footlite Musicals

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By John Lyle Belden

Since it launched in 1996, Terrance McNally’s musical “Ragtime” — based on the E.L. Doctorow novel — has become an American “Les Mis,” a great sweeping epic of national identity and tragic power. And now it graces the stage of Footlite Musicals.

Set in the first decade of the 20th century, an upper-middle class family in New Rochelle, N.Y. find themselves at the crossroads of a number of intersecting stories, blending historical figures and events with characters who were a reflection of the era in various ways — good and bad. 

One can’t dispute the star power of such roles as ragtime pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Allen Sledge), who faces one racist indignity too many; his tragic girlfriend Sarah (Angela Manlove); extraordinarily kind Mother (Heather Hansen), discovering liberation despite society’s constraints; her headstrong Younger Brother (Jared Gaddis), whose search for meaning takes him to radical extremes; and immigrant Tateh (Daniel Draves), whose artistic soul keeps reaching for the American Dream until he finds it. 

Another impressive performance is by Edgar, the Little Boy, who acts as one of the play’s narrators as well as involvement in numerous scenes — a big task for a young actor, which Lincoln Everitt carries out well.

The “real” people in the show include Henry Ford (W. Michael Davidson), J.P. Morgan (Bryan Padgett), Harry Houdini (Josh Cox), and anarchist Emma Goldman (Lauren Laski) — as well as two whom history would remember in completely opposite ways. Evelyn Nesbitt (Hadas Yasmin) was the Kim Kardashian of her time, a style icon with more notoriety than talent, only known now by her inclusion in Doctorow’s book; while civil rights icon Booker T. Washington (Jerry Davis) is widely celebrated to this day.

Directed by Paula Phelan, this production has solid performances throughout, including from characters who don’t come off quite as heroic in the narrative — such as Father (Mitchell Hammersley) who means well, but finds himself distanced from his family (even when he’s with them) and lost in the changing times; and bigoted fireman Willie Conklin (Josh Cornell), the biggest villain of the show.

A last-minute addition to the cast, Truman Peyton charms as little Coalhouse Walker III in the finale.

The split-level set is used to good effect, with excellent light effects and projections to punctuate scenes, and a nice representation of a Model T to drive across the stage. Zak Techiniak directs the live orchestra.

Part of the impact of this very powerful musical story is in the unflinching look at the treatment of minorities of the era, including the use of vicious language, in context. It is disturbing, as it is meant to be — a visceral reminder of how far we have come in a century, yet how close we are to falling back.

Performances run through Oct. 13 at 1847 N. Alabama St.,near downtown Indy. Call 317-926-6630 or visit footlite.org.

The beat goes on for CCP with ‘Ragtime’

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By John Lyle Belden

RAGTIME: A modification of the march with additional polyrhythms coming from African music, usually written in 2/4 or 4/4 time with a predominant left-hand pattern of bass notes on strong beats and chords on weak beats accompanying a syncopated (“ragged”) melody in the right hand. Ragtime is not a “time” in the same sense that march time is 2/4 meter and waltz time is 3/4 meter; it is rather a musical style that uses an effect that can be applied to any meter. – from Wikipedia

How appropriate that “Ragtime” is the title of the first show for Carmel Community Players after losing its previous home: The beat of the theatrical season goes on, as events turn ragged with a stage search resulting in a nicer venue – though outside Carmel and further from Indy. A large and immensely talented cast and crew adapt quickly, making props and actor movement serve a larger space, singing their hearts out as seasonal health issues threaten.

Yet it all works.

It is worth the drive up to Noblesville to see this compelling glimpse of an America that, a century later, still casts its shadows on the events and issues of today.

This Broadway musical is largely the story of three families – Harlem musician Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Ronald Spriggs) and Sarah (Angela Manlove), the woman who fell in love with him; Jewish Eastern European immigrant Tateh (Thom Brown) and his daughter (Ali Boice), seeking any possible opportunity in America; and the wealthy white suburban family finding themselves in the middle of upsetting but inevitable social, historic and cultural changes. Being what would now be called the faces of “white privilege,” in this latter group we don’t even bother with names: Father (Rich Phipps), Mother (Heather Hansen), her Younger Brother (Benjamin Elliott), Grandfather (Duane Leatherman) and Little Boy (Lincoln Everitt).

We also see some people who one might actually meet in early 1900s New York, including anarchist Emma Goldman and Civil Rights icon Booker T. Washington, powerfully portrayed by Clarissa Bowers and Bradley Lowe, respectively. Celebrities include Harry Houdini (Jonathan Krouse), popular magician and escapist; and Evelyn Nesbitt (Molly Campbell), the Kardashian of her era.

Appropriately, the most critical roles give the strongest performances – Manlove and Spriggs bringing us to tears, Brown confronting crushing problems with wry humor, and Hansen struggling to reconcile her “perfect” life into a more just worldview.

Also notable are Guy Grubbs as unrepentant bigot Willie Conklin, and – at the opposite end of character appeal – little Gavin Hollowell steals our hearts in the final scene.

In addition, I must give kudos to Everitt for, as frequent narrator and our future-generations point of view, ably carrying such a big role on his small shoulders.

This musical has seen some controversy, particularly in its period-appropriate use of the N-word, but the horrors of racism should disturb us, and in the end this is not just a story about groups, but individual men and women, like us, dealing with the still-continuing evolution of this thing we call America.

Performances are this Friday through Sunday (April 27-29) at Ivy Tech Community College auditorium, 300 N.17 th St., Noblesville. Information and tickets at carmelplayers.org.